Chad Kerley Swoops the Win in BMX Streetstyle

For the second consecutive year, Dew Tour brought back the unequaled BMX Streetstyle course to span the slope of Harrison Street in San Francisco, California as part of the Toyota City Championships.

This unique contest, combined real life street obstacles like benches, rails, flatbed trucks and brick banks mixed in with a few reinforced cars for the athletes to ride – the options were endless. The format for this event consisted of 16 riders that were each given three turns on the ultimate streetstyle course in order to lay down the run of day.

Covering more than a three-block radius, with the Bay Bridge as a backdrop, the riders sent themselves down the course in order to become the second ever streetstyle winner. However, last year's winner Garrett Reynolds came prepared and ready to throw down on the unique course in order to defend his title and following his display on the street course the day prior where he maintained his title there his chances were looking good.

Last year one of the big stories from the event was when Scotty Cranmer threw his bike on top of the shipping container obstacle in order to throw a tailwhip off of and onto the Toyota Corolla, so this year the Dew Tour planned accordingly and provided riders a smooth passage to the top to see what they could throw down. Cranmer’s best scoring run from top to bottom was filled with a tailwhip on flat, a truckdriver off of the first ramp, a tire ride on the barrier to tailwhip, an Abubaca on the car, a feeble 180 on the bench, a fufanu on the back rail of the hip, a giant tailwhip off the shipping container, a 180 barspin up the wedge and then an ice pick down the rail at the end – this run earned him the third place spot overall.

Scotty Cranmer, tailwhip

"I just got third place for the second year in a row. For me it's such a big accomplishment,” said Cranmer after he hopped off the podium. “For a guy that is known as a park rider, it's always nice to come out and do well in Streetstyle. I don't want to say that it’s to prove that I can ride the ramps and stuff because my whole entire BMX career, even as a kid, I loved riding street as well. It's just good to go out there and give everyone a reminder that this is where my heart is, too."

Ty Morrow, tooth pick

On the side of the shipping container was a ramp to a rail, something that Ty Morrow was quick to take to and was the only rider of the event to grind it successfully. Morrow made his run with it a few times but during his third and final run he busted a 180 out which helped bump his score high enough to take a podium position. His entire best run included a switch tooth to over tooth on the first rail, a 180 on the manual pad to full cab off, then a grind to hard 180 on the up rail, tooth hanger on the bench, tailwhip on the hip, the rail hop to out rail to hard 180, a 360 up the euro gap, a switch hanger across the flat rail and the gap and then a half cab off the trailer.

"I'm pretty surprised to make the podium. I was definitely nervous watching Garrett, Chad, Scotty and everyone that went after me,” said the humble Morrow following the award ceremony. “I feel like anyone could've won this thing, so I'm psyched to haven't gotten second."

Then, the San Diego, California native Chad Kerley took to the course in his recognized technical fashion. Kerley cruised the course and hit about every object in order to rack up the highest score of the event. One of Kerley’s craziest tricks of the event was his nose manual across the top of the brick pyramid to barspin out – a trick most BMX professional riders struggle with, but Kerley showcased his comfort with it multiple times throughout the event.

Chad Kerley, double peg grind tuck no-hander

Kerley’s best run consisted of a 540 over the first wedge, to hop whip, to bar manual feeble hard 180 on metal ledge, a double peg up to no-hander off the uprail, then an ice pick to barspin off the picnic bench, the technical nose manual to barspin off the top of the brick bank, then a 180 over the handicap rail, a 540 up the dock and then a truckdriver off – this run deservingly bumped him to the first place position.

Although Reynolds had the final drop of the day to unseat Kerley, after he pulled a double truckdriver off the top kicker he slipped his pedal when trying to tailwhip on flat. An uncharacteristic miss for Reynolds, but even if he would have pulled it he would have needed to pull something unseen in order to unseat Kerley.

Rightfully so, Kerley claimed the top spot on the podium and he couldn’t have been any happier.

"It's so unreal, I had one run under my belt and I just wanted to send it on the last one,” and send it Kerley did. “I thought I did as good as I could on the first run, so I was just going to try the 540 and maybe the nose [manual to barspin] on the last run, and I'm just thankful for the way it worked out. I'm stoked!"